Aesthetic Upheaval due a Political Decision

Abstract

Architecture since the beginning of time have been developed and shaped according to many aspects such as environmental factors, material availability, construction knowledge, religion, economy, and political decisions. In the current century, with the globalized building materials and increased awareness in architecture construction methods, architecture has hundreds of different ways to be constructed and developed. On the other hand, architecture is being formed and affected mainly due to economic factors, and political decisions. Bekaa Valley, a region in Lebanon could be a spectacular political event. The former is a region famous for its agricultural lands formed by million years of sediment clustering from rich Lebanese mountains bounding the area from the east and the west. In the specific eastern area of ​​Beka'a valley studied - Nabisheith to Douris- is full of farming lands, used by locals and nomads to grow variables of vegetables, fruits, and wheat. A political decision developed by the local minister, to build houses by underdeveloped permits, changed the typology of a landscape created more than 2500 years ago. The architectural typology also changed to the new kind of architecture, which is indifferent to the local knowledge of construction learned and developed by locals. Local knowledge developed and adapted to harshness of weather by local materials replaced by globalized materials and abrupt political decisions.